Summer is upon us, yet more than 40 percent of adult Americans are expected once again to not use all of their paid time off. Many more say they are getting away from work, but stay tethered to their phones and devices, working part time while their kids and spouses actually relax.
A 2014 survey by Glassdoor found that the average American employee who receives a vacation benefit had used only 51 percent of the eligible time off in the previous 12 months. The survey also revealed that 61 percent of employees who took time off reported working at least some while on vacation.
“No one believes the out of office status anymore,” says Richard A. Moran in a LinkedIn blog article. Moran is president of Menlo College, a private, nonprofit school in Silicon Valley that focuses on business education. “No matter where we are, what we are doing, and whom we are with, we all sneak time to check and respond to email. Worse, we all expect others to do the same. No place is safe and no one believes that you are not checking emails, even whilst on vacation. It could be the tragedy of today’s workplace but it is the reality and it is not a good thing.”
It’s up to both employers and employees to respect the expectation that they truly are off when they say they are, says Amy Fox, president, CEO and founder of Accelerated Business Results, a provider of business learning solutions and consultant to Fortune 500 companies.
“The bottom line is that ‘OOO’ should mean ‘I am truly unavailable and you will not hear from me until I return.’ If an OOO status states that someone is unavailable, then it's up to the sender of the message to respect that andthe person who is away to uphold it,” Fox says. “Resist the urge to respond. Otherwise, what's the point of even telling others that you're out?”
Moran proposes adding the word “really” to OOO notifications, as in “I am REALLY out of the office and REALLY will not be checking email, and would REALLY appreciate it if you didn’t bug me, and I REALLY want you to deal with my colleague ___________ , whom I REALLY do trust to handle things whilst I am gone. REALLY.”
“I bet that would really do it,” he quips
